xvi, 640 pages : 25 cm

Mozart: a life is based on an unsurpassed knowledge of the documentary sources, including numerous documents that have not previously appeared in any biography of the composer. It offers a beautifully written and absorbing narrative of Mozart's life, from his birth in 1756 and childhood in Salzburg to the extraordinary decade of acclaimed performances in the capitals of Europe, where he was honored by royal families and adoring audiences, to his emergence as a prolific young composer, his status as Salzburg's favorite son in the 1770s, his conquest of Vienna, his marriage there, his financial vicissitudes, his later journeys to Prague and Germany, his deepening melancholia, his final triumphs, and his premature death in 1791

Narrative chapters alternate with rich and imaginative in-depth explorations of issues crucial to understanding Mozart - his antic disposition, his penchant for the bawdy, his enigmatic Zoroastran riddles, his perplexing adoption of the code name "Adam," his brilliance as an impresario, his tangled finances, his Masonic creed, and his rending contest with his father, which continued to shadow him even after Leopold Mozart's death in 1787. And in a series of highly original chapters, Solomon probes such musical topics as the finding of Mozart's personal voice in his early serenades; the innovative character of his slow movements; the blend of strangeness and ecstasy in some of his most beautiful instrumental works; and the disquieting effect of his later operas

Includes bibliographical references (pages 593-610) and index

The myth of the eternal child -- Leopold Mozart -- Early days -- The grand journey -- The family treasure -- A Vienna sojourn -- The Italian journeys -- The favorite son -- A composer's voice -- A fool's errand -- Mozart in love -- A mother's death -- Trouble in paradise -- Parallel lives -- Farewell to Salzburg -- Arrival -- Constanze -- Two families -- Adam -- The impresario -- Portrait of a composer -- Freemasonry -- The Zoroastran riddles -- The carnivalesque dimension -- Fearful symmetries -- Little Leopold -- "Carissima sorella mia" -- Prague and beyond -- The journey to Berlin -- A "constant sadness" -- The last year -- The final journey -- The power of music -- Appendix: Mozart's Vienna earnings

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